Hi, first off I'm not a certified or professional mechanic. I've never gone to school for any of this or had anyone teach me. If there's something that doesn't make sense, please voice your opinion so we can make this write-up as correct as possible for future users.

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I've had some noise coming from the rear wheels for a while and apparently there's a common problem on these cars. Unfortunately for me, my car has over 100,000 miles on it, otherwise this should be covered by Subaru (Subaru Recalls: a list of recalls on various model- Outback, Impreza, Legacy, WRX, STI, Forester, Tribeca). If your car has under 100k miles and is less than eight years old and you're having noise coming from your wheels, give Subaru a call to have them take a look at it - sounds like they'll replace it for you.

It's hard to tell from which wheel the sound is coming, and some times it's a scraping sound, other times it's a sound that correlates to the wheel turning. I decided to start with one side and then do the other side if the noise persisted.

I went with a Timken bearing (HA590119) which I picked up at AutoZone. The reason for this was the extended warranty compared to the Duralast one which was considerably cheaper. The best deal for these bearings seem to be on Ebay, where you currently can have a Timken bearing shipped to your door for under $80.

You also need to install a new axle nut, since it gets indented when installed and thus compromising it from future use. Subaru sells these for around $5 and the parts number is: 902170049.

Then I put a small screwdriver where the axle nut had been indented to move the indentation back out by hammering on it. A narrow flat punch would be more ideal, but I don't have one. It's not necessary to get it back out 100%, the force you'll apply with the breaker bar will force it to come out enough for the nut to come out.

I used the differential to jack the car up just enough to get the rear wheels off the ground. This was the correct location according to several "internet" sources. It doesn't look too substantial and it does look a bit sketchy with the rubber mounts moving on top of it, but it seems to work fine.

I then placed jack stands at the back of the car by the jack points. There are two markings about three inches apart where the stands go. These markings are also at the front of the car along the pinch welds. Something interesting happened here where the cup shape of the jack stand was too deep and would start going into the plastic trim on the rocker panel. I set them as high as I could for safety and relied on the jack. Not ideal..

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